Vigilantes Make Us Safe

Rebel Rebel Vol. 2 Heroes of the City Part 4

“Attention everyone in Millennium Park. The ceremony to honor our vigilante heroes the Goggle Guys is being delayed for a short time as a few issues with our presentation need to be worked out. We ask that everyone move to the far end of the park while things are handled. Officers will guide you. Please move quickly but stay calm and avoid any pushing or shoving.”

The crowd starts to grow restless as the police lead them away. Ryaan Asfour barely takes his eyes away from the countdown on the bomb in front of him. He’s gathered with a group of police officers as the bomb squad tries to disarm it before it can blow them all away. When he looks at anything else he scans the crowd for any sign of his sisters or his friend Mina. If something happens he’ll feel especially responsible for her. She’s only here today because he asked her to be. She wanted to stay as far away as possible.

There’s a part of him that feels guilty about stopping this. The Goggle Guys are going to be on that stage at some point behind honored if the stage doesn’t blow up. If someone wanted to take a shot at them, they might have a good reason. These guys are the worst of the worst, using the power the Vigilantes Making Us Safe Act gives them to torment people. He’s been on the end of their torment himself as has Mina. They haven’t earned a death sentence though and as much as he’d like to see them gone, using a bomb in a public park’s far too dangerous. He still doesn’t know how dangerous this bomb even is. It looks dangerous.

One of the cops turns to him. “You should probably clear out of here kid. Thanks for the tip but if that goes up, we don’t know how big the blast’s going to be.”

He shakes his head, crossing his arms. “Which means there’s no guarantee I can get far enough away if I wanted to. Might as well stay and see what comes of this. Hopefully your bomb squad has time.”

The clock goes under two minutes. The officer wipes his forehead with a napkin. “You might not be able to get far enough, but you might. Why not try?”

“Are you running?” When the man shakes his head, Ryaan says, “Then I’m staying too. Hopefully if it goes off it doesn’t work. We’re going to find out soon.”

They watch the clock nervously, staying silent as it ticks under one minute. They’re a good hundred feet away but Ryaan starts to wonder if he should be even further. He glances behind him to see how much open park there is, how far he could run. If the timer gets under ten second he vows to at least drop to the ground and cover his head. When the timer hits the thirty six second mark it stops. Cheers go up from the small crowd and people pat each other on the back.